


Reunion

by jujuberry136



Series: Reunion [1]
Category: Big Bang Theory, Criminal Minds
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-11
Updated: 2009-08-11
Packaged: 2017-10-17 12:34:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/176899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jujuberry136/pseuds/jujuberry136
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spencer’s in Pasadena and wants to catch up with an old…acquaintance</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s note: Just something fun I wrote after finding inspiration in last night’s episode of The Big Bang theory. Un-betaed. Reviews and con-crit welcome :D
> 
> Disclaimer: The Big Bang Theory belongs to Chuck Lorne and Bill Prady. Criminal Minds belongs to Ed Bernero.

At some point in her life, Penny is just going to have to accept the weirdness that is Apartment 4A. From the Sunday parades in paint-spattered army camouflage to the loud arguments that arise from Klingon Boggle, Penny has lead a stranger life since moving to Pasadena. Scratch that, Penny’s lead a stranger life since meeting Sheldon and Leonard (and Howard and Raj by extension).

So when she sees the tall, thin man with long hair standing in front of 4A’s door she doesn’t even pause. “It’s Wednesday night, Sheldon and Leonard are playing Halo at Howard’s house this week — I think.”

She noted absently that he dressed even odder than Sheldon, whose superhero t-shirt collection was at least similar to other graduate school attire. The man in front of her was wearing brown pants, a blue checkered shirt, grey sweater vest, purple scarf, and mismatched socks peaked out from pant leg. “Thanks,” he said, oblivious to her mental fashion critique.

“No problem,” she replied easily. “You of friend of theirs?”

“I went to graduate school with Sheldon,” he offered. “Not sure if we ever qualified as friends rather than acquaintances. But I was in the area and thought I’d drop by to see how he was doing.”

“He’ll probably be back soon,” she said. “Oh, I’m Penny by the way.”  She gestured to her own door,  “I live across the hall.”

“I gathered from your keys,” he replied wryly. He bobbed his head, and said “Spencer Reid.”

He made no move to cross the distance landings between the apartments to shake her hand. “Are you like Sheldon? Don’t shake hands because of germs?” she asked curiously.

He looked down at the ground and blushed slightly. “Eighty percent of all infectious diseases are transmitted by human contact and over a third of Americans don’t wash their hands after using the restroom.”

“I could have lived not knowing that,” Penny replied faintly. She pulled herself together. “You said you were in the area, where do you live now?”

Before he could answer, footsteps echoed loudly up through the stairway and Sheldon and Leonard appeared.

“You totally missed that last shot on purpose,” Sheldon accused Leonard. “For all your lecturing on the importance of teamwork, I would think you would have a better grasp of the concept yourself.”

“For the last time, Sheldon. Just because I said it was getting late doesn’t mean that I purposely missed the shot. Correlation is NOT causation, or did you forget basic statistics today?” he replied snottily. He looked away from his argument with his roommate and spotted Penny.  “Hi Penny!”

Then he noticed Spencer Reid. “Who’s this? You’re new boyfriend?” he asked accusingly, staring at the stranger as if he had destroyed his 2009 Comic Con Battlestar Galactica LED Toaster.  Leonard and Sheldon had spent three days tracking down the warehouse they were being stored so they could an advanced sale.

“Actually, Spencer’s here for Sheldon,” Penny replied with a grin.  She had been planning on a Dawson’s Creek marathon but this had the potential to be very interesting.

“I was in the area, wanted to say hi,” Spencer repeated, shoving his hands in his pockets awkwardly.

“Reid, aren’t you supposed to be on the other side of the country squandering your half-way decent intellect in the civil service?” Sheldon replied.

“Yes, I do still work for the FBI,” Reid replied, unfazed by Sheldon’s antagonism. “We just finished a case in Los Angeles and our plane doesn’t leave until tomorrow. I was visiting Professor Gauss  when he mentioned you were teaching at Cal Tech now.”

“And you knew where my apartment was because the FBI gave you psychic powers?” Sheldon asked.

“Not yet, but there were an alarming number of graduate students who knew your address,” Reid replied. “I thought you didn’t interact with anyone who didn’t have a Masters degree?”

“I have been persuaded to modify my approach,” Sheldon replied stiffly. “Well, you’ve seen me, I’m well on my way to winning my Nobel. I’m eating, sleeping, and having regular bowel movements thus maintaining homeostasis nicely. Goodbye.”

Sheldon slipped into his apartment and closed the door firmly behind him.

“Well, this is awkward,” Leonard said after a moment of silence.

“Pretty much par for the course for us, actually,” Reid answered. “It was nice to meet you both.”

As he started down the steps, Penny elbowed Leonard sharply. “You can’t let him leave!” she hissed.

“What do you want me to do?” Leonard whispered.

“You’re hopeless,” she replied quietly. She called out to Reid, “Wait!”

When he turned around, she asked, “Don’t let Dr. Whackadoodle get to you. You came all this way, do you want to stay for dinner?”

“I don’t want to intrude,” Reid started.

“No intrusion!” Penny replied perkily. She elbowed Leonard again.

“Right! The more the merrier,” Leonard added, rubbing his side as inconspicuously as he could. Penny’s elbows were sharp!

“Plus you can tell us all stories of Sheldon’s grad school days,” Penny said with a wicked grin. “I’m sure there are some good ones.”

“I think I can find a few stories for you,” Reid replied as his long legs took the stairs three at a time to come back to the landing. “Does he still have the whole theoretical physicals purity ego going on?”

Leonard nodded tiredly.

Reid smiled wickedly, “He’s never gotten over the fact that mathematics is far more theoretically pure than his field. Sad I had to break the news to him all those years ago.”

While Leonard ordered food, Penny guided Reid to the couch. “So you work with the FBI, but you know Sheldon from his grad school days — how does that work?”

“I got my bachelors and PhDs from Cal Tech then joined the FBI about seven years ago,” Reid replied easily. “Sheldon and I were in a few classes together and since we were about the same age, we were often stuck together at department meetings.”

“What did you study,” Leonard asked as he joined the duo on the couch. “By the way, I ordered pizza, hope you don’t mind.”

“Pizza works,” Reid replied. “And I have PhDs in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Engineering and Bachelors in Psychology and Sociology.”

Penny blinked. “Three? Why do you need THREE PhDs?”

Reid shrugged and smiled slightly. “I like to learn.”

“And when you can read over 20,000 words a minute you have a bit of an unfair advantage,” Sheldon interrupted suddenly. “Penny, if you’re going to invite guests into my apartment, the least you could do is leave my space on the couch alone. You’ll mess up the cushion density and it’ll all be ruined.”

“Sheldon, you need to ease up on the cushion possession! You didn’t even call fives!” Penny teased.

“Why would I need to call fives on a piece of furniture in my apartment? It’s my spot on my couch, how can it be any easier that it is my personal property?” Sheldon complained. “Or should I use smaller words to make it easier for you to understand?”

“So why the FBI Spencer?” Leonard interrupted. “Why not stay in academia?”

“Because he’s an idiot who let himself be talked into wasting his gifts in civil service so he never has to worry about failing to measure up to my brilliance.” Sheldon suggested quietly.

“My job is challenging and it’s meaningful. I help people everyday,” Reid replied. “Plus, it’s been made patently clear that I’d make a terrible professor. I can’t even get a laugh at my icebreakers during recruiting sessions.”

“That doesn’t stop Sheldon,” Leonard said innocently, ignoring his roommate’s protests. “Though he never actually bothers with the ice breakers, he goes straight to the insulting of everyone’s intelligence.”

When she finally got her giggles under control, Penny asked Reid, “What do you do at the FBI?”

“I work in the Behavioral Analysis Unit,” he replied. “We provide behavioral based investigative and operational support to local law enforcement towards complex or time-sensitive crimes. “

“Which means?” Penny asked confused at the very precise answer she was given.

“I catch bad guys—usually repeat offenders, but occasionally we lend assistance in child abductions, kidnappings, school shootings, that type of thing,” Reid clarified.

“Not that you don’t have an important job,” Leonard began, “but I don’t get why you’d want to leave Cal Tech to work for not that much money and see horrible things every day.”

Reid was silent. Sheldon gave up his pretense of working on his laptop and stared expectantly at the newcomer.

“I wanted to do something real,” Reid finally said. “It would have been easy to stay, keep working on degrees, publishing, and researching. It wouldn’t have been bad by any stretch of the imagination. But now I get to use the statistics, the math, even my knowledge of literature, to save people.”

He shrugged. “Plus, I’m only 28. I can always go back to academia if I want to later on.”

“I just got the Series 4 box set of Doctor Who,” Sheldon said, ruining the thoughtful contemplation of the others. “Want to watch it? Donna Noble is pretty awesome.”

“I’m game,” Reid replied. “Are you still working on plans for your own TARDIS to go back in time and award yourself the first Nobel Prize for Physics?”

“I put those aside for the time being to focus on heterotic string theory.” Sheldon replied loftily, focusing intently on the DVD menu.

When morning rolled around, Penny woke to the persistent ringing of a cell phone. Kelly Clarkson wasn’t playing, so it wasn’t her phone. It wasn’t the Star Trek theme or Batman’s theme, so that ruled out Leonard and Sheldon’s phones. Must be Spencer’s phone.

She blindly tried to swat the annoying sound. She hit something soft, though the “ow!” sound that resulted made her think it wasn’t the phone. Penny opened her right eye with difficulty and saw Leonard rubbing his side and glaring at her.

“What is it with you and hitting me recently?” he asked peevishly.

“Make the sound stop,” she commanded groggily. She knew she shouldn’t have stayed to watch the third disk, but David Tennant was surprisingly handsome in his pinstriped suit and chucks. She might have to steal the earlier seasons from Sheldon later on.

Leonard stood and stretched slowly before poking a sleeping Spencer Reid. At some point in the night he had shed the jacket and sweater vest and was using the scarf as a makeshift pillow.  “Dude,” Leonard said, “answer your phone. It’s really…loud.”

Spencer groaned and reached into his pocket. “elo?” he mumbled. He rattled off the apartment’s address and grunted occasionally. Before hanging up he said, “Bring coffee. Sugar, milk, lots.”

As he started to untangle himself from the lounge chair, he asked Leonard, “Where’d Sheldon go?”

Neither Leonard nor Penny had noticed the missing member of their quartet. “Sheldon?” Leonard called to the apartment, “You around?”

Sheldon poked his head out of his room. “Finally! Penny’s snoring has been terribly distracting the last few hours.”

“I don’t snore!” Penny exclaimed.

Leonard ignored Penny’s outraged declaration to ask, “Sheldon, how come you let us all fall asleep on the couch?”

“Technically you and Penny fell asleep on the couch and Spencer on the lounge chair,” Sheldon replied pedantically. “And Penny fell asleep in MY PLACE. She probably ruined the whole cushion. It’s going to take ages to find a replacement.”

Leonard ignored Sheldon’s complaint with ease, “Who was calling you so early?” he asked Reid.

“J.J, wheels up in two hours, coming to get me,” Reid explained curtly.

“Still can’t function without your crutch?” Sheldon asked from the small kitchen where he was waiting for his poptart to finish toasting. He was curious to see how the frosting would look with the centurion head stamped on it.

Reid blinked owlishly. “Coffee?” he asked Leonard hopefully.

“None here, sorry,” Leonard replied. He thought for a moment. “Sheldon, why didn’t you wake us up when you went to bed? Didn’t you think the rest of us would want to sleep in our beds?”

“You made me pinky swear I would never interrupt if I found you and Penny sleeping together!” Sheldon protested. “And it’s not like Spencer had a bed here to sleep in, so where would he have slept besides the chair?”

As Leonard fought to keep his blush under control, four sharp knocks came from the front door. Grateful for the interruption (and ignoring Sheldon’s gasp of “The Master!”), he opened the door to see a gorgeous blonde woman standing in front of him. 

Checking quickly that Penny was still in his apartment (she was), he turned to the newcomer and asked, “Can I help you?” with the best suave voice he could muster after four hours of sleep.

“I’m looking for Reid,” she replied.

“Coffee?” Reid asked desperately when he caught sight of her.

As she handed over the large mug, she smiled perkily. “Good morning J.J! Thanks for bringing me coffee! And for coming to pick me up this morning instead of shopping! How are you doing this morning?” She turned slightly, “You’re welcome Reid. Really, it was no problem. I’m doing well, thanks for asking.”

“I don’t think that’s having any effect,” Penny pointed out sadly. Reid had taken the lid off the mug and was searching for the last few drops at the bottom. She shook her head.

“I’m sorry, I’m Penny Wilkins. It’s nice to meet you,” she said as she extended her hand.

The other blonde shook her hand firmly. “Jennifer Jareau, though everyone calls me J.J. I’m sorry to be so rude, but the jet leaves in an hour and we’ve got a drive. Reid, I’m parked outside, I’ll see you in a minute.”

Reid finished pulling on his shoes. “It was nice to meet you Leonard, Penny. And Sheldon, it was good to see you’re doing well.”

“Bye Spencer!” Penny called as Leonard waved silently.

As the FBI agent walked to the door, Sheldon replied. “It was not a complete waste of time to see you again.”

Reid smiled and started down the stairs heavily. From the window, they could see him get into the passenger side of a black SUV.

“I can’t believe you friends outside this apartment,” Penny remarked as she watched the car leave.

“He’s decent, for an over-grown Oompa-Lompa of science,” Sheldon replied.

“I thought that mathematicians were supposed to get a pass?” Leonard teased.

Sheldon didn’t appear to notice. “Just because some idiot on the Mathematics board was willing to overlook his interest in Engineering doesn’t mean I will.”

**Author's Note:**

> References:
> 
> [Fields by Purity ](http://xkcd.com/435/)cartoon (i.e. Math more pure than physics)
> 
> [Battlestar Galactica Toaster-](http://www.nbcuniversalstore.com/detail.php?p=105701&v=nbcu_comic-con&icid=nbcu_homepage_flash_comic-con_product_button) Comic Con 2009
> 
> Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and scientist who contributed heavily to the fields of number theory, differential geometry, astronomy, and optics.  
> 


End file.
